PAEDO REFUSES TO ACCEPT HE RUINED LIVES
»Jailed coach asks why victims waited to report »He claims boy ‘wanted to be part’ of his evil abuse
TWISTED paedophile Bill Kenneally claimed yesterday one of the boys he abused wanted to be “part of it”.
The predator former basketball coach plied youngsters with booze before subjecting them to horrific sexual assault over a decade.
But he told a Commission investigating the response to his abuse that if boys’ lives had been ruined by what he had done, “I don’t know why it took them 30 years to come forward”.
And when asked by senior counsel for one group of survivors, Barra Mcgrory, if he had committed a “campaign of abuse” Kenneally denied it. He claimed one victim had “wanted to be part of it” and refused to accept he had “ruined the lives” of some boys he had preyed upon.
His sick claims caused upset among the victims and their families at the hearing at the Dublin Dispute Resolution Centre.
Monster Kenneally is serving almost 19 years in prison for the serious sexual abuse of 15 young boys between 1979 and 1990 following two criminal prosecutions.
Addressing the Commission yesterday he said he “probably” would have confessed to abusing teenage boys if gardai had acted on information they received two years before he had spoken to officers.
Kenneally said by 1985, he knew his abuse of teenagers was wrong and he needed to stop.
The former Waterford coach made the admissions while giving evidence at the Commission of Investigation examining the response of gardai and others to allegations against him.
The Commission, chaired by retired judge Michael White, is also examining Basketball Ireland, politicians and the Catholic Church.
On Tuesday, Kenneally said he told gardai in 1987 about his abuse of teenage boys but “heard nothing” on the matter for 25 years.
However, it emerged yesterday one of his victims had told officers he was abused by Kenneally as early as 1985 but claimed they did not act on the information.
Kenneally, in his early 70s and formerly of Summerville Avenue, Waterford, had admitted 10 sample counts of indecently assaulting 10 boys in the city in the 1980s.
Ray Motherway BL, representing two victims, told the
I don’t know why it took them 30yrs to come forward...
BILL KENNEALLY YESTERDAY
Commission there was an incident in 1985.
Kenneally was shown pictures of the survivors, referred to as A12 and A8, and confirmed he was aware of both them.
Mr Motherway said A8 stated Kenneally picked him up in his vehicle and he was abused by him.
He said he was angry at what happened and went to a Garda station the next morning.
Kenneally told the Commission he was familiar with the victim’s evidence.
Mr Motherway said the victim told gardai, saying he had been “sexually abused by Bill Kenneally”.
However, the victim claims he was told by gardai that there was nothing they could do for him without an adult present. Mr Motherway added: “This occurred in June 1985 and by 1987, you went for interview with An Garda Siochana.”
Kenneally agreed on the day he spoke to gardai – December 30, 1987 – his admission to the abuse “had been coming for some time”. He agreed he realised he wanted to be stopped and that by 1985, he realised the errors of his ways.
Mr Motherway asked: “Did you know what you were doing was wrong?”
Kenneally replied: “I probably did.” He was asked that if gardai had acted on that information and knocked on his door, would he have “had it in his heart to tell them?”
He told the Commission: “I probably would have.”
And asked what gardai would have found if they had searched his home at the time, Kenneally said they would have found orange twine, handcuffs, scissors as well as a flash lamp. He also told the Commission he kept photographs of boys in a shoe box in a bedroom.
Kenneally was also questioned as to what his cousin, former Fianna Fail TD Brendan Kenneally, knew about his sex abuse. The Commission was told the pair went on a basketball tournament in Cork in 1981 with young players. The politician was in charge of allocating hotel rooms, and it was put to Kenneally his cousin put him in a room with one of his victims.
Mr Motherway said his client, A12, “suffered horrific abuse” and the next morning, Brendan Kenneally had asked A12 if he “had fun last night”.